Rusty has resigned as DM Admin. The election for the next DMA was scheduled to begin in less than two weeks anyway, so this election will serve to elect a DMA for the next full term. The successful candidate will serve until October 2008.
I hereby open self-nominations for this election. The nomination period will last for seven days from the time of this post.
Please do not post in this thread unless you are self-nominating.
Self-nominations for DM Administrator are now closed
Moderator: ALFA Administrators
Self-nominations for DM Administrator are now closed
Last edited by kmj2587 on Fri Mar 28, 2008 2:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
I had been planning to run in a couple of weeks, so this announcement caught me off guard.
So I announce that I will be running. My platform may be a little disorganized at this point and I freely admit that it may be a work in progress
I am not sure of the details of Rusty's resignation, but I wanted to recognize his efforts and contributions to the project. I think he has done a great job and I wish to congratulate him.
On to my platform.
1. I plan on giving some of the hardest workers in ALFA the recognition they deserve, and that is the DM's who contribute greatly to the storylines and adventures we share. I plan on some changes to the requirements for the application to become a DM in ALFA, particularily NWN2. Currently, all potential DM's need to fill out a DM App, even if you have DM'ed in ALFA for years. Several potential DM's have informed me privately that they will not DM if they have to go through a hurdle of processes to DM again. And why should they if they have already proven themselves as great DM's in the past? No DM Apps if you have already been a DM in ALFA in good standing. However, if you have never DM'ed in ALFA, the process applies. All DM's will be provided with the necessessary documents for our standards, exp rewards, and the DM client tutorial and any courses they need. They will also be assigned a DM mentor.
Now, we will have one live server in the next 6 months, and maybe another. That means that most of the DM'ing will be done on TSM. Aside from the NWN1 servers that are still going strong, most DM's in NWN2 will get to know each other fairly well, so it will be a nice group.
2. Streamlining some standards and processes. No, I am not suggesting a free for all. I want to review all the standards and practices pertaining to DM'ing, Server requirements, and standards. Which ones? I am not sure just yet, but I want to make sure we are not shooting ourselves in the foot and scaring away players, DM's and builders by top-heavy administrative procedures. After all, there are other RP'ing PW's out there with standards as well, and they are up and running.
3. Plane-touched. Whatever I can do as a DMA, however possible, I want them in. I want players to have the choice. Unofficial polls already show a majority of ALFAn's agree. There seems to be some concern that the DM's don't want to DM them because they are too much trouble. As a DMA I want to ensure that Plane-touched PC's can be DM'ed, but I will not force a DM to DM such a PC. I feel, however, there will be enough DM's to give a Plane-touched PC fair coverage.
4. Server selection. Definitely changes. If I am elected DMA, and you want to build a server, PM me and send me a page or so of intent. I would like all the Admin to vote on it and if the vote is unanimous, you are in. And, you can get support from other volunteer builders and ALFA's resources as is happening with TSM.
5. My time between HDM and DMA. Well, that is a concern, however, since there is one live NWN2 server and our NWN1 servers seem to be running smoothly, and there is overlap between the DMA and HDM of the first live NWN2 server, I think it will work out.
Probably more to follow.
So I announce that I will be running. My platform may be a little disorganized at this point and I freely admit that it may be a work in progress
I am not sure of the details of Rusty's resignation, but I wanted to recognize his efforts and contributions to the project. I think he has done a great job and I wish to congratulate him.
On to my platform.
1. I plan on giving some of the hardest workers in ALFA the recognition they deserve, and that is the DM's who contribute greatly to the storylines and adventures we share. I plan on some changes to the requirements for the application to become a DM in ALFA, particularily NWN2. Currently, all potential DM's need to fill out a DM App, even if you have DM'ed in ALFA for years. Several potential DM's have informed me privately that they will not DM if they have to go through a hurdle of processes to DM again. And why should they if they have already proven themselves as great DM's in the past? No DM Apps if you have already been a DM in ALFA in good standing. However, if you have never DM'ed in ALFA, the process applies. All DM's will be provided with the necessessary documents for our standards, exp rewards, and the DM client tutorial and any courses they need. They will also be assigned a DM mentor.
Now, we will have one live server in the next 6 months, and maybe another. That means that most of the DM'ing will be done on TSM. Aside from the NWN1 servers that are still going strong, most DM's in NWN2 will get to know each other fairly well, so it will be a nice group.
2. Streamlining some standards and processes. No, I am not suggesting a free for all. I want to review all the standards and practices pertaining to DM'ing, Server requirements, and standards. Which ones? I am not sure just yet, but I want to make sure we are not shooting ourselves in the foot and scaring away players, DM's and builders by top-heavy administrative procedures. After all, there are other RP'ing PW's out there with standards as well, and they are up and running.
3. Plane-touched. Whatever I can do as a DMA, however possible, I want them in. I want players to have the choice. Unofficial polls already show a majority of ALFAn's agree. There seems to be some concern that the DM's don't want to DM them because they are too much trouble. As a DMA I want to ensure that Plane-touched PC's can be DM'ed, but I will not force a DM to DM such a PC. I feel, however, there will be enough DM's to give a Plane-touched PC fair coverage.
4. Server selection. Definitely changes. If I am elected DMA, and you want to build a server, PM me and send me a page or so of intent. I would like all the Admin to vote on it and if the vote is unanimous, you are in. And, you can get support from other volunteer builders and ALFA's resources as is happening with TSM.
5. My time between HDM and DMA. Well, that is a concern, however, since there is one live NWN2 server and our NWN1 servers seem to be running smoothly, and there is overlap between the DMA and HDM of the first live NWN2 server, I think it will work out.
Probably more to follow.
If I had served a full term, my re-election platform would have been a fairly straightforward document. I would have said that I would continue to support NWN1 DMs and servers, as I have done for the past year. I would have said that the DM Training programme had been a qualified success, but that I was glad to have run it. I would have thanked everyone who had participated, at whatever level.
I would have talked about our progress towards a Live NWN2 server: how impressed and proud I was with spirit of (sometimes grumpy) co-operation amongst the builders and scripters who have concentrated their effort on TSM in the past few weeks. I would have said that I thought that a Live server on April 15 was a realistic prospect as a result of this co-operation. I would have said that, after getting TSM to Live, I would be sitting down with our build teams and discussing how best to further develop ALFA – including all those people who have, formally or informally, discussed their vision for a NWN2 server with me over the past few months.
I would have thanked Hialmar for fine tuning our automated DM App system. I would have said that I was pleased with our development of the kind of integrated approach to DM training that ALFA has for so long desperately needed. I would have highlighted the publication of our preliminary XP scheme for NWN2, and set out my intent to streamline our wealth processes, based on feedback I have received from the DM corps. I would have commended Thangs’ excellent PT proposal, which I have already discussed with him. And I would have talked about the new ALFA DMG – the first tranche of which has already been published onto the wiki.
I would have highlighted what we have been able to achieve so far – and also what we have been unable to achieve. And if Rick and Jayde had run then, on similar platforms, I would probably have commented on them. I would probably have said that Rick’s got a lot to contribute to ALFA, but his strengths lie in the toolset and the DM client, and that he has enough on his hands with TSM. I would probably have said that, although Jayde is a great guy and a commendably active DM, he simply hasn’t had enough involvement in our NWN2 preparations to jump into the hotseat three weeks before Live and doesn’t have the kind of expertise being a successful DMA requires.
However, I didn’t serve a full term: I resigned. At the time, I didn’t say why. To a certain extent, I couldn’t – or shouldn’t. Since then, it’s become clear that I have to explain.
I resigned in protest at the decisions of several of my fellow Admin; decisions that I felt undermined some of the most basic principles of this community.
I resigned in protest at the statement that lying to a DM does not constitute Cheating.
I resigned in protest at members of the Administration refusing to allow disciplinary charges to be brought against an ALFAn because of their perceived standing in the community.
I resigned because I believe that all ALFAns should be treated equally, and that, when it comes to the fundamental rules that bind this community together, no one deserves special treatment.
Now, none of this will be very clear to most ALFAns. As some of you will have figured out, this relates to a dispute matter, and dispute matters are supposedly subject to their very own code of silence. Most of the time, this makes sense. Most of the time it may very well be appropriate that these matters are dealt with confidentially. Sometimes, however, the system breaks. Sometimes it is necessary for these matters to become public. Sometimes Admin have to be held to account for their decisions. Sometimes it is not possible to disagree and move on.
So… I shall tell you a little story. This little story won’t identify anyone; it won’t include any unnecessary facts or theories; it won’t cover any of the side issues or arguments; it just tells the tale of my resignation. It’s set in the recent past, and it involves people whom we all know, and in some cases know well. My story isn’t going to give you their names, because you don’t need to know their names to understand it. It is going to tell you some things that are going to be very surprising, even shocking. It is also going to tell you some things that, strictly, you’re not allowed to know. Now, I could get into all kinds of trouble for telling you, but they are things that you need to know, and need to know now, so that’s a risk I’ll just have to take.
My story starts last year, in October. Way back then I was viciously forcing our DMs through a wealth training process. During the course of this, many of our DMs asked many players many questions. My story is about one of those questions – one question that was put to two players. That question was a simple one: do your PCs have any permanent ability score edits? Now, maybe some readers don’t understand what that means. What was being asked was, have the base ability scores of your PC been increased beyond the 30 point buy and +1 / 4 levels that all ALFAns are entitled to. The two players answered ‘yes’; yes, their PCs had got permanent ability score edits, in each instance +2 to one ability. Now, maybe this surprises some ALFAns. They might feel that edits of this nature are inappropriate in our Persistent World. And they might very well be right. But that is not the point of this story. The point of this story is that, a few months later, and by chance, we happened to come across the actual ability scores of these PCs. And these PCs did indeed have +2 edits, to one ability, as they said.
However, they also had a further +7 permanent ability score points. That’s right: +9 overall. So while your PC was labouring along with a measly 30-point build, these two were enjoying at least 42-point builds, possibly more. Surprised? Shocked?
But, I imagine most readers saying, didn’t you say that they told a DM that they had only +2 edits? Indeed, I reply, indeed I did.
Now we happened to know that no other current PCs had any overall permanent ability score edits: it was just these two in the whole of ALFA. And we happened to have a record of them telling a DM that they didn’t have the edits they in fact did. This, it may be thought, was a bit of a problem. So we had an investigation; quite a long investigation, in fact. At the end of the investigation, we still didn’t have a proper explanation of why it was these two players had told a DM that they had only +2 edits when in fact they had +9. And we had nothing like a proper explanation of how they came to have such edits in the first place.
That’s not to say we didn’t have an explanation at all. We did. The first explanation we were given was that the players simply did not know that their PCs had NINE more ability points than any other in ALFA. That’s right. They didn’t know. Or they forgot.
The second explanation was that the additional seven points must have come about by accident. That’s right. These two PCs both picked up SEVEN ability score points by accident.
Some forgetfulness. Some accident.
So, it came to be that Admin had to make a decision about what to do next. But there was a problem. You see, ‘lying to a DM’ isn’t actually listed in the ALFA Rulebook as an offence. And even if it was, the Rulebook has a 90-day limitation period. The players were quite insistent about this meaning they could not be charged with any offence. Apparently, it is reasonable to argue that lying is fine – as long as you hide it for 90 days. So, in order to bring a formal charge against either player, it had to be done under the Charter, which requires a formal Admin vote. So we had one. We had a vote on whether or not to charge both these players with cheating, by virtue of their having lied to a DM. Now – and this bit matters – this vote was not on whether they should be BANNED; it wasn’t even on whether they were GUILTY of cheating at all. This vote was on whether lying to a DM was cheating and consequently a charge should be brought. And a majority of Admin voted no.
Even I was a little surprised by that; and I was very surprised by some of the reasons given.
One Admin voted no on the specific ground that lying to a DM was not Cheating. That’s right. It is now officially fine to lie to a DM in ALFA. Go for it, just make sure you’re not caught for a couple of months.
Two other Admin explicitly stated that they would not support any charge against the players because of their prominence in the community. That’s right. If Joe Bloggs lies to a DM, it’s an offence; but if you’re somebody important – well, let’s not cause a fuss eh? A quick splash of forum whitewash in the guise of threatened Infra strikes and it’s over.
Well, not quite.
I resigned because I believe that trust between player and DM is fundamental to ALFA, and that violating this trust is one of the most serious wrongs that an ALFAn can do.
I resigned because I believe that lying to a DM is cheating, and that if there is evidence that a player has lied to a DM, they should be charged with cheating; and if the PA finds that they did cheat, they should be punished, to the extent that PA believes is appropriate.
I resigned because I believe that all ALFAns should be treated equally. That regardless of whether you are a simple player or a mighty Administrator, you should be held to the same basic standard. Hell, I believe that there’s a case for those in power to be held to a higher standard: certainly that’s what the DM code of conduct always said. Still, I think it’s pretty clear – and, I thought, pretty uncontroversial – that the powerful and influential should not be given a free pass to cover their misdemeanours.
So, I resigned; and now I self-nominate. I self-nominate for DM Admin on three grounds:
1. I have demonstrated that I have the expertise and ability to succeed as DMA.
2. I am the best candidate to oversee our progress to NWN2 Live and beyond.
3. I will work to ensure that our disciplinary system functions properly: that people who lie to DMs are not able to hide behind rules-lawyering and procedural quibbles, and that all ALFAns are treated equally, instead of having some who are, well… more equal than others.
I’m running again because, if this incident had not occurred, I would have sought a third term in nine days time, so that I can see NWN2 through into Live. I’m running again because I’ve been asked by DMs to explain why I resigned – and when I’ve explained, they’ve asked me to run again. They’ve asked me to run again because they, too, believe that players abusing DM trust is an insult to DMs and to the community and because they believe that all ALFAns should be treated equally. I’m running again because we currently have DMs who cannot trust some of their players. I’m running again because I believe that I was right to stand up for DMs not being lied to, and that I was right to stand up for all ALFAns, regardless of their status in the community, being treated as equals.
I don’t necessarily expect to win this election. The same interest groups that kept the players in my little story from ever facing justice won’t be best pleased with me. And I imagine there’s going to be some embarrassment amongst those who have to try and justify some of the reasons they gave for ignoring what happened, although in fairness they have had more than ample opportunity to make a public explanation already. I’m pretty sure that we’ll have a larger than usual helping of the same old ad hominem attacks, and I'm pretty sure all kinds of unhelpful nonsense is going to get dragged up. But – I do think that I am the best candidate to be DMA for the next six months – and I do think that ALFA needs to know when it’s basic principles are tossed into the trash in the name of political expediency.
So... thank you for reading.
Rusty
I would have talked about our progress towards a Live NWN2 server: how impressed and proud I was with spirit of (sometimes grumpy) co-operation amongst the builders and scripters who have concentrated their effort on TSM in the past few weeks. I would have said that I thought that a Live server on April 15 was a realistic prospect as a result of this co-operation. I would have said that, after getting TSM to Live, I would be sitting down with our build teams and discussing how best to further develop ALFA – including all those people who have, formally or informally, discussed their vision for a NWN2 server with me over the past few months.
I would have thanked Hialmar for fine tuning our automated DM App system. I would have said that I was pleased with our development of the kind of integrated approach to DM training that ALFA has for so long desperately needed. I would have highlighted the publication of our preliminary XP scheme for NWN2, and set out my intent to streamline our wealth processes, based on feedback I have received from the DM corps. I would have commended Thangs’ excellent PT proposal, which I have already discussed with him. And I would have talked about the new ALFA DMG – the first tranche of which has already been published onto the wiki.
I would have highlighted what we have been able to achieve so far – and also what we have been unable to achieve. And if Rick and Jayde had run then, on similar platforms, I would probably have commented on them. I would probably have said that Rick’s got a lot to contribute to ALFA, but his strengths lie in the toolset and the DM client, and that he has enough on his hands with TSM. I would probably have said that, although Jayde is a great guy and a commendably active DM, he simply hasn’t had enough involvement in our NWN2 preparations to jump into the hotseat three weeks before Live and doesn’t have the kind of expertise being a successful DMA requires.
However, I didn’t serve a full term: I resigned. At the time, I didn’t say why. To a certain extent, I couldn’t – or shouldn’t. Since then, it’s become clear that I have to explain.
I resigned in protest at the decisions of several of my fellow Admin; decisions that I felt undermined some of the most basic principles of this community.
I resigned in protest at the statement that lying to a DM does not constitute Cheating.
I resigned in protest at members of the Administration refusing to allow disciplinary charges to be brought against an ALFAn because of their perceived standing in the community.
I resigned because I believe that all ALFAns should be treated equally, and that, when it comes to the fundamental rules that bind this community together, no one deserves special treatment.
Now, none of this will be very clear to most ALFAns. As some of you will have figured out, this relates to a dispute matter, and dispute matters are supposedly subject to their very own code of silence. Most of the time, this makes sense. Most of the time it may very well be appropriate that these matters are dealt with confidentially. Sometimes, however, the system breaks. Sometimes it is necessary for these matters to become public. Sometimes Admin have to be held to account for their decisions. Sometimes it is not possible to disagree and move on.
So… I shall tell you a little story. This little story won’t identify anyone; it won’t include any unnecessary facts or theories; it won’t cover any of the side issues or arguments; it just tells the tale of my resignation. It’s set in the recent past, and it involves people whom we all know, and in some cases know well. My story isn’t going to give you their names, because you don’t need to know their names to understand it. It is going to tell you some things that are going to be very surprising, even shocking. It is also going to tell you some things that, strictly, you’re not allowed to know. Now, I could get into all kinds of trouble for telling you, but they are things that you need to know, and need to know now, so that’s a risk I’ll just have to take.
My story starts last year, in October. Way back then I was viciously forcing our DMs through a wealth training process. During the course of this, many of our DMs asked many players many questions. My story is about one of those questions – one question that was put to two players. That question was a simple one: do your PCs have any permanent ability score edits? Now, maybe some readers don’t understand what that means. What was being asked was, have the base ability scores of your PC been increased beyond the 30 point buy and +1 / 4 levels that all ALFAns are entitled to. The two players answered ‘yes’; yes, their PCs had got permanent ability score edits, in each instance +2 to one ability. Now, maybe this surprises some ALFAns. They might feel that edits of this nature are inappropriate in our Persistent World. And they might very well be right. But that is not the point of this story. The point of this story is that, a few months later, and by chance, we happened to come across the actual ability scores of these PCs. And these PCs did indeed have +2 edits, to one ability, as they said.
However, they also had a further +7 permanent ability score points. That’s right: +9 overall. So while your PC was labouring along with a measly 30-point build, these two were enjoying at least 42-point builds, possibly more. Surprised? Shocked?
But, I imagine most readers saying, didn’t you say that they told a DM that they had only +2 edits? Indeed, I reply, indeed I did.
Now we happened to know that no other current PCs had any overall permanent ability score edits: it was just these two in the whole of ALFA. And we happened to have a record of them telling a DM that they didn’t have the edits they in fact did. This, it may be thought, was a bit of a problem. So we had an investigation; quite a long investigation, in fact. At the end of the investigation, we still didn’t have a proper explanation of why it was these two players had told a DM that they had only +2 edits when in fact they had +9. And we had nothing like a proper explanation of how they came to have such edits in the first place.
That’s not to say we didn’t have an explanation at all. We did. The first explanation we were given was that the players simply did not know that their PCs had NINE more ability points than any other in ALFA. That’s right. They didn’t know. Or they forgot.
The second explanation was that the additional seven points must have come about by accident. That’s right. These two PCs both picked up SEVEN ability score points by accident.
Some forgetfulness. Some accident.
So, it came to be that Admin had to make a decision about what to do next. But there was a problem. You see, ‘lying to a DM’ isn’t actually listed in the ALFA Rulebook as an offence. And even if it was, the Rulebook has a 90-day limitation period. The players were quite insistent about this meaning they could not be charged with any offence. Apparently, it is reasonable to argue that lying is fine – as long as you hide it for 90 days. So, in order to bring a formal charge against either player, it had to be done under the Charter, which requires a formal Admin vote. So we had one. We had a vote on whether or not to charge both these players with cheating, by virtue of their having lied to a DM. Now – and this bit matters – this vote was not on whether they should be BANNED; it wasn’t even on whether they were GUILTY of cheating at all. This vote was on whether lying to a DM was cheating and consequently a charge should be brought. And a majority of Admin voted no.
Even I was a little surprised by that; and I was very surprised by some of the reasons given.
One Admin voted no on the specific ground that lying to a DM was not Cheating. That’s right. It is now officially fine to lie to a DM in ALFA. Go for it, just make sure you’re not caught for a couple of months.
Two other Admin explicitly stated that they would not support any charge against the players because of their prominence in the community. That’s right. If Joe Bloggs lies to a DM, it’s an offence; but if you’re somebody important – well, let’s not cause a fuss eh? A quick splash of forum whitewash in the guise of threatened Infra strikes and it’s over.
Well, not quite.
I resigned because I believe that trust between player and DM is fundamental to ALFA, and that violating this trust is one of the most serious wrongs that an ALFAn can do.
I resigned because I believe that lying to a DM is cheating, and that if there is evidence that a player has lied to a DM, they should be charged with cheating; and if the PA finds that they did cheat, they should be punished, to the extent that PA believes is appropriate.
I resigned because I believe that all ALFAns should be treated equally. That regardless of whether you are a simple player or a mighty Administrator, you should be held to the same basic standard. Hell, I believe that there’s a case for those in power to be held to a higher standard: certainly that’s what the DM code of conduct always said. Still, I think it’s pretty clear – and, I thought, pretty uncontroversial – that the powerful and influential should not be given a free pass to cover their misdemeanours.
So, I resigned; and now I self-nominate. I self-nominate for DM Admin on three grounds:
1. I have demonstrated that I have the expertise and ability to succeed as DMA.
2. I am the best candidate to oversee our progress to NWN2 Live and beyond.
3. I will work to ensure that our disciplinary system functions properly: that people who lie to DMs are not able to hide behind rules-lawyering and procedural quibbles, and that all ALFAns are treated equally, instead of having some who are, well… more equal than others.
I’m running again because, if this incident had not occurred, I would have sought a third term in nine days time, so that I can see NWN2 through into Live. I’m running again because I’ve been asked by DMs to explain why I resigned – and when I’ve explained, they’ve asked me to run again. They’ve asked me to run again because they, too, believe that players abusing DM trust is an insult to DMs and to the community and because they believe that all ALFAns should be treated equally. I’m running again because we currently have DMs who cannot trust some of their players. I’m running again because I believe that I was right to stand up for DMs not being lied to, and that I was right to stand up for all ALFAns, regardless of their status in the community, being treated as equals.
I don’t necessarily expect to win this election. The same interest groups that kept the players in my little story from ever facing justice won’t be best pleased with me. And I imagine there’s going to be some embarrassment amongst those who have to try and justify some of the reasons they gave for ignoring what happened, although in fairness they have had more than ample opportunity to make a public explanation already. I’m pretty sure that we’ll have a larger than usual helping of the same old ad hominem attacks, and I'm pretty sure all kinds of unhelpful nonsense is going to get dragged up. But – I do think that I am the best candidate to be DMA for the next six months – and I do think that ALFA needs to know when it’s basic principles are tossed into the trash in the name of political expediency.
So... thank you for reading.
Rusty
The self-nomination period has now ended and voting has begun in the following thread.
http://www.alandfaraway.org/phpbbforum/ ... 139#462139
Eligible voters for this election include all sitting admin, HDMs, EADMs, ADMs, and vote-enabled staff heads.
http://www.alandfaraway.org/phpbbforum/ ... 139#462139
Eligible voters for this election include all sitting admin, HDMs, EADMs, ADMs, and vote-enabled staff heads.